Once More
by RipredtheGnawer
Summary: The death of the Boy with the Bread, fifty-three years after Mockingjay. Obvious MOCKINGJAY SPOILERS. No longer just a one-shot. POVs of Katniss and her daughter, and eventually Katniss's son.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm sorry how depressing this is, but it really took on a meaning for me. Red River Valley is a song that I think would stay with the remains of the human race throughout everything.**

**So, um, this is NOT my song, sadly. I don't own it.**

**But don't you think it fits?**

* * *

Peeta lies on the bed, his hand in mine. Our fingers, now wrinkled and bone-thin, still clutch together the way they always have.

My husband groans, and from his face I see that he's in pain. Almost gone. The tumor that began with that long-ago hijacking has grown and grown for fifty-three years.

"Katniss…" he breathes. His eyes, lucid for once, find mine and hold their gaze.

"Yes?"

"Where are Lavinia and Thresh?" He names our children, who cannot be here to say good-bye.

"They're across the ocean, Peeta. Trying to renew the planet." He's forgotten.

"Oh. Oh, yes. I remember now."

I sit silently beside him, watching his face. No longer young and smooth, but still beautiful. His gray hair still there, not balding like others I know. Blue eyes bright from the pain. A drop of water splashes onto his cheek and I wipe away the tears that are coming from me.

"Don't cry, Katniss. This isn't so bad."

"I know." My voice is just a whisper. "Can I get you anything?"

"No." He pauses and then changes his mind. "Yes, actually. There is one thing…"

"What is it?" Whatever it is, I'll do it.

"Sing. Please." How can I refuse him now? I think carefully about which song to choose. A long moment passes before I finally decide upon one that I think will make him happy.

_From this valley they say you are going,_

_ We'll miss your bright eyes and sweet smile._

_ For they say you are taking the sunshine_

_ That has brightened our pathways awhile._

The Valley Song, the first song Peeta ever heard me sing.

_Come and sit by my side if you love me,_

_ Do not hasten to bid me adieu,_

_ But remember the red river valley,_

_ And the girl that has loved you so true._

_I've been thinking a long time, my darling,_

_ Of the words that you never would say._

_ Now must my fond hopes all vanish?_

_ For they say you are going away._

The song is about a girl whose boyfriend is leaving her for someone else, which is about as far from my relationship with Peeta as you could get. But I think he likes it anyways.

_Come and sit by my side if you love me,_

_ Do not hasten to bid me adieu,_

_ But remember the red river valley,_

_ And the girl that has loved you so true._

_Won't you think of the valley you're leaving,_

_ Oh, how lonely and sad it will be,_

_ Just think of the fond heart you're breaking,_

_ And the grief you are causing to me._

As I sing the words I realize it's true, that my heart really is breaking. A strange ache in my chest that send the tears running down my cheeks once more.

_Come and sit by my side if you love me,_

_ Do not hasten to bid me adieu,_

_ But remember the red river valley,_

_ And the girl that has loved you so true._

_From this valley they say you are going,_

_When you go, may your darling go too?_

_ Would you leave her behind unprotected,_

_ When she loves no one other than you?_

Maybe this was the wrong song to sing, for Peeta's face is wet with salt water as he looks at me. But his lips are smiling sadly, so I wouldn't stop if I could.

_Come and sit by my side if you love me,_

_ Do not hasten to bid me adieu,_

_ But remember the red river valley,_

_ And the girl that has loved you so true._

_As you go to your home by the ocean,_

_ May you never forget those sweet hours_

_ That we spent in the red river valley,_

_ And the love we exchanged 'mid the flowers._

I've sung this song to Peeta dozens of times since that first one at five years old, but I don't think I'll ever sing it again after this.

_Come and sit by my side if you love me,_

_ Do not hasten to bid me adieu,_

_ But remember the red river valley,_

_ And the girl that has loved you so true._

_I have promised you, darling, that never_

_ Will a word from my lips cause you pain._

_ And my life, it will be yours forever_

_ If you only will love me again._

It's difficult to keep my voice going. There's a lump in my throat and a pain in my heart. Peeta's eyes close but I can see his chest rising and falling slightly as he clings to life to my hand.

_They will bury me where you have wandered,_

_ Near the hills where the daffodils grow,_

_ When you're gone from the red river valley,_

_ For I can't live without you I know._

The description of the hills of daffodils sends a pang through me. Our life has had so little of the beauty in this song, at least until Lavinia was born. But still I can't help but think of the meadow in the other lullaby. The one with the daisies. This last chorus is only a whisper of a song, wavering but still sweet.

_Come and sit by my side if you love me,_

_ Do not hasten to bid me adieu,_

_ But remember the red river valley,_

_ And the girl that has loved you so true._

I bow my head and begin to murmur soft words. What he has forgotten.

"Lavinia and Thresh are trying to make things better, Peeta. They're cleaning up this mess of a world. Do you know what they found where they are?" I pause as a gentle sob rises in my throat. "They found forests and mountains and everything we thought our ancestors had destroyed. As big as Panem – bigger. There's hope after all." My voice catches because there is no hope for me, not really, not anymore. "The planet can heal itself. It's getting better now." The tears come thick and fast as I whisper, "Our children are giving it new life."

But Peeta has stopped listening, and I hear the ghost of a cannon as it fires.

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**I'm not sure if I'm going to add any more to this, but I might. If I'm not inspired, I'll mark it as complete... if you have suggestions, please write a review with them! (I'll give you credit)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So, I decided to continue this. It's been bugging me for a while and it felt like it needed more. So here it is.**

**And if you've got an issue with the kids being named after dead people (Lavinia the Avox and Thresh of D11) then let me assure you, so do I. It's just that I wrote the first chapter before I realized that people don't actually want to hear the names of their dead friends' for the rest of their lives. So we have two kids with awesome namesakes but very improbable names. Oops.  
**

**Also, age. If you do the math, in the first chapter it says that the tumor started 53 years ago. Peeta was hijacked at age 17, so that makes them both 70. It says in the epilogue of Mockingjay that they had kids 15 years after the war, so they would have been 32 by that point. 70 - 32 is 48, but I don't want Lavinia to be that old! So I'm going bonkers and taking 20 years off of the kids' lives. But Katniss is still 70!**

**Sorry. I just wanted to explain so that nobody got mad in the reviews. Which brings me to my next point - please review!  
**

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Lavinia's POV

_

* * *

Lavinia and Thresh,_

_ Dad's gone. It was very sudden. I'm so sorry that I didn't let you know, but there wasn't enough time. Hovercrafts can't cross the ocean in two days. He wished you were here, though._

_ Don't come to 12; Johanna helped me get permission to go to Novus to be with you. I'll be there in a week or two._

_ I'll be seeing you soon. Is there a way we could have your father's funeral in Novus? The pictures you've sent look so fresh and green. I think he'd like it there._

_ Love,_

_ Mom_

My fingers release the paper and it flutters to the ground. Dad, gone? It can't be! I know I shouldn't be so surprised, because his tumor certainly wasn't anything new, but I hadn't thought that any pain could be this strong, this raw, this all-consuming.

"Vin? What's wrong?"

I look at Thresh, my brother, and my heart crumbles at the thought of telling him the news. He's three years my junior. All my life I've tried to protect him, though I'm not sure I've succeeded. Why now, in the face of tragedy, must I finally let him grow up? I open my mouth to speak, and hot tears roll down my face.

"It's – Dad," I choke out.

His face pale, Thresh snatches up the letter and scans it quickly. I hear his intake of breath and his arms around me, and we stand there on the front walk, trying to hold each other together.

It's a long while before I'm able to let go, and even longer before Thresh will let me. I look at the date on the letter; it's from three days ago. I think back to _that day_, the day when my father died and I didn't even know it.

It was Wednesday, full of melting snow and blue skies and happiness. I've heard that you're supposed to know when a loved one is gone. You feel a sudden pain in your heart or have a vision or something. But I can't remember anything out of the ordinary. Nothing to suggest that half of my world had been torn away.

I try to write back, but the words don't come. Eventually I have to stop because I'm crying again, and then Thresh is there and we sob some more. In the twenty-eight years I've been alive, I've only felt so lost one other time. It was when my parents told me what they'd done, how they'd amassed the collection of mental, emotional, and physical scars that they both wear. I remember screaming, horrified that these loving people could ever do what they told me. But that trauma was nothing compared to this.

When I finally fall into a restless sleep in my own house, the last thing I remember is a shade of blue, deep and clear and kind.

My father's eyes, and mine.


End file.
